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rc-dlist-deque

Doubly-linked list based on std::Rc

by Ian Jackson. Co-owned by Tony Finch.

5 releases (stable)

1.1.2 Nov 16, 2022
1.1.1 Nov 12, 2022
1.1.0 Nov 7, 2022
1.0.0 May 10, 2019
0.1.1 Mar 9, 2019

#1275 in Data structures

GPL-3.0-or-later

63KB
710 lines

rc_dlist_deque - Doubly-linked list based on std::Rc

Please see the documentation (online copy).

Source code, issues, etc., are here: https://salsa.debian.org/iwj/rc-dlist-deque

Copyright (C) 2019-2022 Ian Jackson; GNU GPLv3+; NO WARRANTY.

lib.rs:

rc-dlist-deque - Doubly-linked list based on std::Rc

This crate provides a doubly-linked list implementation for circumstances where Rc is suitable for managing the individual nodes.

How to use this crate

See the module-level documentation

When not to use this crate

Many programmers new to Rust look for a linked list when another data structure is better. Consider Vec and VecDeque. A doubly-linked list is good if:

  • You need to retain and store, long-term, a reference to the middle of your list, and you need quick access to the corresponding item, and

  • You need to be able to quickly add or remove items in the middle of your list, based on such references; or your references into the middle of the list must remain valid even as you add or remove other items elsewhere in the middle, and

  • Your lists might be long.

In other circumstances, which is most circumstances, you probably wanted Vec or VecDeque instead. They have much lower overhead and are simpler to work with.

In particular:

  • If you don't need to add/remove items in the middle, then a Vec or VecDeque works well. You can use array indices as your references.

  • If you want a VecDeque with stable indices, this can be achieved by maintaining a signed counter of elements pushed/popped at the start, as done by vecdeque-stableix.

  • If you don't need to retain long-term references to the middle of the list, then you can use a vector. Adding or removing items in the middle does mean copying to shuffle items up or down, but if you aren't keeping a reference to the modification location you will have to walk along to find the right place anyway.

Note that there are a number of deque-ish alternatives to std::VecDeque which are not doubly linked lists and do not aim to support modification in the middle of the list, at least some of which seem like they might be useful. Search crates.io for deque, and also consider blist.

Other doubly-linked list libraries

If you do need a doubly-linked list, but do not need your items to be on more than one list at once, consider generational_token_list instead. It has a much simpler ownership model and will be faster too.

If you want each item to be able to be on more than one list at once (perhaps even selecting the linked list link within each node dynamically at runtime), then this crate rc-dlist-deque may be what you want.

Survey of available Rust doubly linked lists, compared to VecDeque

(This table is rendered rather poorly by Rustdoc, lib.rs, etc. Use the correctly formatted version built standalone with pandoc, instead.)

<style> table.dlist_survey th, table.dlist_survey td { border-top-color: black; border-bottom-color: black; border-left-color: black; border-right-color: black; border: 1px solid; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; } </style>
Crate or module Ref to element (aka Index or Cursor) Other misuse possible, and consequences List owns (T is element type) Cost of editing in middle Memory locality Element can be on multiple lists API complete­ness Send/​Sync Safety Comments
Type After altering list at front/​back After altering list in middle After removing ref'd element Given ref to elem Without ref to elem
Choose one of these approaches
std VecDeque
(or another deque library)		 usize
position		 wrong element if alteration at start wrong element (or None or panic) Rich API can invalidate indices T O(n) O(n) sequential - ++ Yes Good Use if you don't need persistent cursors
vecdeque-stableix i64 isize ... valid not supported Index can overflow, giving panics. sequential - + Yes Safe Consider if you need to modify only at ends
rc-dlist-deque Pointer​<L,S> valid valid valid Specify wrong list for alteration: debug_assert, "tangling" Rc<T> O(1) scattered to heap Yes + - Safe Consider if you need each element on multiple lists
generational_token_list ItemToken
slot+gen.		 valid valid reliably None ([] panics) Specify wrong list for access or alteration: Maybe detected by luck, giving None, otherwise wrong element T random order in vector - ++ Yes Safe (exc.​IterMut) Otherwise, use one of these
dlv-list Index​<T>
slot+gen.		 ++
Use generational_token_list or dlv-list instead of any of the following
chainlink Index
slot+gen.		 valid valid reliably None Specify wrong list for access or alteration: Maybe detected by luck, giving None, otherwise wrong element T O(1) O(n) random order in vector - - Yes Safe No IterMut; otherwise plausible
indexlist Index​<T>
slot+gen.		 - - - Yes Safe
index_list Index
slot		 None (or panic), or (later) wrong element - + Yes Safe
slabigator usize
slot		 T O(1) random order in vector - - Yes uses unsafe usize slot indices are a poor API choice
array-linked-list usize
slot		 T O(1) random order in vector - + Yes needless unsafe
im/im-rc Vector usize
position		 wrong element if alteration at start wrong element (or None or panic) T O(log(n)) chunks in heap - + im uses unsafe usize position indices are a correctness hazard
skip-linked-list T O(log(n)) scattered to heap - - - uses unsafe
cddl Cursor, DoubleCursor valid valid not supported T O(1) scattered to heap - - - - - uses unsafe Strange and limited API
Use VecDeque instead of any of the following
intrusive-collections linked_​list Cursor​[Mut] Mutation not possible while any other cursor exists (prevented by lifetimes). This almost entirely defeats the point of using a doubly linked list. Various O(1) O(n) scattered to heap Yes + Yes uses unsafe If this API is enough for you, use VecDeque instead
cordyceps List Cursor​[Mut] (roughly) unsafe impl Handle scattered to heap - Yes unsafe to use!
tsil_cev Cursor​[Mut] T random order in vector - Yes Safe (exc.​IterMut)
ixlist Cursor T - + Yes needless unsafe
linked-list Cursor T scattered to heap - Yes uses unsafe
cyclic_list Cursor​[Mut] T scattered to heap Yes uses unsafe
pin-list Cursor​[Mut] Complicated user provides Pin<&mut Node> - Yes uses unsafe
key-node-list Cursor​[Mut] T O(log(n)) in vector (via HashMap) - - Yes
std LinkedList Not supported. This defeats the point of using a doubly linked list. T n/a scattered to heap - Yes
doubly T scattered to heap - Yes uses unsafe
linked_lists_rs / rust_linked_list T scattered to heap - Yes uses unsafe
xor_list T scattered to heap - - uses unsafe
index_queue T sequential - - - Yes Reimplementation of VecDeque

It can be hard to implement IterMut without using unsafe , so no criticism is intended for those crates that use unsafe for this.

Not considered

Single-ended, or special purpose)

Not considered here because they are a single-ended list (so there is little reason to use anything but a Vec); or because they are special purpose:

c_linked_list, char-list, concurrent_list, cons-list, doubly_linked_list, fplist, functional_list, fwdlist, im-list, linked_hash_map, linked_hash_set, linked_list_allocator, linked-tail-list, list, moonlight_collections, nerdondon-hopscotch, nt_list, persistent-list, rose_bloom, secured_linked_list, simple-stack, stack_list, static-linkedlist, weak-list2, uell, unrolled_linked_list.

Not intended (or not suitable) for general use

Not considered here because of poor or missing docs, very poor API, Nightly-only, won't build, or other indications that they're not intended (or suitable) for use by the world in general:

cll, clist, double_linkedlist, dynalist, ilist, linkedlist, rs_trie, static-linkedlist, matecito-dll.

Survey colophon

Last updated, and last resurveyed, November 2022. If I do a future survey, I may look at only the most popular crates. Please let me know if you think your library ought to be listed in the section "Choose one of these approaches".

Changelog and colophon for rc-dlist-deque

Minimum Supported Rust Version is 1.31.0. MSRV policy: We do not anticipate changing the MSRV in the foreseeable future. If we do, it will be at least a minor version bump. We will not increase the MSRV beyond that available in Debian oldstable.

1.1.2

  • Minor updates to doubly linked list survey (crate level docs).
  • No API or implementation changes.

1.1.1

  • Minor updates to doubly linked list survey (crate level docs).
  • No API or implementation changes.

1.1.0

  • MSRV 1.31.0 (was 1.30.0)
  • Change to 2018 edition.
  • Add this Changelog.
  • Update doubly linked list survey (crate level docs).
  • Changes to documentation generation and release arrangements.

1.0.0

  • Documentation. No API or implemnetation changes.

0.1.0

  • First public release.

rc-dlist-deque is Copyright 2019-2022 Ian Jackson. GNU GPLv3+; NO WARRANTY.

No runtime deps